Christian Drouin 1962 Coeur De Lion Pays d'Auge Calvados

Rounded on the nose with fragrances of boiled cider, nutmeg and roasted coffee. It has retained lively and fruity notes (dried and over-ripe fruit). Delicate, refined and elegant on the palate. Suave at first, evolving towards a touch of tannic dryness in the finish, with “flattened apple. Aging in old Calvados casks. Importer Notes

Across the orchards that the Drouin family works with there are a total of thirty different varieties of apple trees. Different varieties ripen at different times between late summer and early winter, so the apples are stored until the proper mix of sweet, bittersweet, bitter and acidic has been achieved. The various varieties from each of the categories are blended together and pressed into cider simultaneously. All the cider is pressed at the original farm, with wild yeast fermentation taking place at both properties in a combination of 100+ year-old wooden vats, stainless steel tanks and concrete tanks. All distillation takes place at the new estate using a total of three stills. Pierre Pivet’s original mobile pot still from 1946 is still in use today. There are two stills on the mobile platform, heated by direct fire, and a third, charentes-style still has also added to expand production. Michael Kennel, D&M